Sunday, January 2, 2011

Holiday Recap

Welcome to the new blog! Thanks for coming along.....

Whew! The last week and a half have been busy and wonderful. I honestly thought, in spite of my prediction that I would be MIA, that I would make it in here at least once or twice but it was not to be. So we'll just have to play rapid-fire catch up....

By the morning of Christmas Eve, we had the whole family assembled: my parents, my brother Dominick and his husband Chris. [Tim, in a mid block schedule change, had to work nights so he was largely out of the picture.] As we don't have many tourist destinations, I loaded them all up for the one we do have, the Taubman Museum of Art.

Say "We need your money!"

And for anyone who thinks that I am too controlling, just look at that rig Eion put together. It was Christmas Eve, where many pictures were bound to be taken, and I let him wear it all day long. Relaxed, you are my middle name.

At some point in the day I called Ann and essentially invited our whole family over. Turns out we weren't the only clan with that idea and it turned into a regular multi generational party. You can really count on my family to fare for themselves at a gathering. I stopped by the door to talk to someone and by the time I made it further into the house, they had scattered, introducing themselves and making themselves at home.

At one point, Dominick launched into the history of the various Robins in the Batman franchise and feared he had swayed too far geek. Rest assured Dominick, these are my people. And sure enough, minutes later, Ann was bringing over Hans to hear the details of the Robins. It was a great Christmas Eve.

The next morning, we woke up to a white Christmas! As we surveyed the tree and its bounty, I couldn't help but think we may have overdone it.

The kids, on the other hand, totally disagreed.

Morrigan and Maggie set about opening as fast as they could. Maggie especially loved her furry new coat and they both were excited about the Easy Bake oven.

Naturally, Morrigan got a few books as well.

Eion was much slower to act, opening each gift, enlisting his Uncles to remove all the packaging and help him try it out before moving on to the next item. Gifts that were largely Lego and weapons.

Seeing as we had added so many projectile launching items, we had to lay the ground rules that the unarmed were off limits at all times.

The girls were off to enjoy the snow but after that, the remainder of the day was reading for the girls and a series of attacks from Eion.

We had a big afternoon meal and were pretty much snowed in after that. I tried to take the kids to an annual Christmas party down the mountain but one spin was about all it took for me to turn tail and head back home. I am clearly Southern now.

Chris had to head home Sunday but everyone else was able to stay until Wednesday which meant Dad and Dominick were in for our annual holiday poker tournament.

Our hosts, Rob and Leigh Anne, were kind enough to open the party to any and all family in town who wanted to play. Lots of fun, lots of poker and Rock Band 3 once you were knocked out. It is highly unlikely that I needed to be up until 2am singing Queen but darn, was it fun.

New Years we went to Ann & Hans' where a few other families came over for a laid back evening. The kids watched movies and sang some (highly entertaining) karaoke while we socialized and played a game called Time's Up (a riot) and President (a blast from the past.) We stayed out til midnight, shocking me, and had one out of three kids awake to see the ball drop. It was excellent and, even better, I mixed in enough water to be completely headache free the next day!

The holidays are over and the kiddos are back to school in the morning. Thank goodness, I need the rest.